Epiphany Blessings for the Home

Chalk Blessing Prayer:

P: Our help is in the name of The Lord. 

All: Who made heaven and earth. 

P: The Lord be with you. 

All: And with your spirit.

Bless, + O Lord God, this creature chalk to render it helpful to men. Grant that they who use it in faith and with it inscribe upon the entrance of their homes the names of thy saints, Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, may through their merits and intercession enjoy health of body and protection of soul. Through Christ our Lord.

All: Amen.

It is sprinkled with holy water.

Prayer Source: Roman Ritual: Volume III, The Blessings by Philip T. Weller, The Bruce Publishing Company, 1952

Home Blessing Prayer:

On entering the home,

Leader (Priest, if present, or father of the family): Peace be to this house. 

All: And to all who dwell herein.

All: From the east came the Magi to Bethlehem to adore the Lord; and opening their treasures they offered precious gifts: gold for the great King, incense for the true God, and myrrh in symbol of His burial.

All Pray: The Magnificat. During the Magnificat, the room is sprinkled with holy water and incensed. After this is completed,

All: From the east came the Magi to Bethlehem to adore the Lord; and opening their treasures they offered precious gifts: gold for the great King, incense for the true God, and myrrh in symbol of His burial.

Leader: Our Father. . . And lead us not into temptation

All: But deliver us from evil. 

Leader: All they from Saba shall come 

All: Bringing gold and frankincense. 

Leader: O Lord, hear my prayer. 

All: And let my cry come to You.

Leader: Let us pray. O God, who by the guidance of a star didst on this day manifest Thine only-begotten Son to the Gentiles, mercifully grant that we who know Thee by faith may also attain the vision of Thy glorious majesty. Through Christ our Lord.

All: Amen.

Leader: Be enlightened, be enlightened, O Jerusalem, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee—Jesus Christ born of the Virgin Mary.

All: And the Gentiles shall walk in thy light and kings in the splendor of thy rising, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon thee.

Leader: Let us pray. Bless, + O Lord God almighty, this home, that in it there may be health, purity, the strength of victory, humility, goodness and mercy, the fulfillment of Thy law, the thanksgiving to God the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. And may this blessing remain upon this home and upon all who dwell herein. Through Christ our Lord.

All: Amen.

After the prayers of the blessing are recited, each room of the home is sprinkled with Epiphany water and incensed. The initials of the Magi are inscribed upon the doors with the blessed chalk. Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, or the initials, C, M, B, can also be interpreted as the Latin phrase "Christus mansionem benedicat" which means "Christ bless this house".)

Example: 20 + C + M + B + 14

A break in the clouds...

The past couple days have felt far more like October than August here at HAA.  The temps have barely reached the low 70s, which even for us in August seems chilly.  That, coupled with monsoon rains, have chilled the GA kids to the bone.  So, getting outside has been a bit more of a struggle than usual.  Today we took a very necessary field trip to the old tennis courts at the park to work off some energy in between rain drops!  With a five, six and seven year old (almost!), getting the wiggles out is essential to getting any school work done.

Silly smiles all around...

Learning to pass is serious business...

Making it spiral...

An old pro...

The wall...

We raced...

And laughed...

We played...

Enough exercise that even J was tired!

Football fun for everyone :)

School Days...

School has been in swing here at Holy Archangels for a little over a week now, and a routine and pattern have developed in our day.  A and J are getting more acclimated to the glorious SW PA lifestyle and have jumped into their work with great success.  We are in the school room and on task by 8:30 AM on a good morning, and other than an increase in snack consumption, ADJ and Diva are good.

The "Littles", as Diva and J have been christened, work through their assignments together, with some skill differentiation to separate the K and First goals.

Most mornings, after prayers and intentions, we tackle the Littles work while ADJ and A work on independent assignments.  By lunch, they are done and we concentrate on A and ADJ's assignments.  A is getting used to the increased work that comes with being in second grade.  Yesterday she tackled the metric system and place value in the same day...that's more than most adults do in a year :)

ADJ is plowing into sixth grade with a new sense of self.  He has struggled for years with confidence and willingness to work independently.  This year he has really taken on the responsibility for himself his education.  But never fear, he still has plenty of fun in the process...

Imagine Egypt...

Not too long ago, Diva began a campaign to bring Ancient Egypt to our everyday lives.  We've studied maps of the Nile Delta, make hieroglyph manuscripts, dug shabtis from plaster, as well as a host of other Egyptian awesomeness.  The pinnacle of the Egypt lessons was the trip to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, where Diva got a little glimpse into the world of the Pharoahs...

Great fun was had by all!  She saw mummies, canopic jars, sarcophagi, and a host of other Ancient Egyptian relics.

She wasn't sure what to make of the remains, but was respectful.  

They loved the burial chamber replicas.

It was a great trip!  Diva came home filled with even more questions and more interest in heading off to the great Nile River in search of tombs and treasure.

Family in the Butterfly Garden...

As mentioned, we have new additions to the seats of HAA.  Our cousins are visiting from the great state of Georgia!  So while we have A and J with us, we are taking every opportunity to show them the wonders of the world around us.  During our fungus hunt, we took a detour to the Butterfly and Mother's Gardens at the lake.  Who could resist such sweet smiles on such a pretty day?  We picnicked on fig bars and grapes and enjoyed the beautiful August sunshine.  What a great way to start the year!

Science in the park...

Our first field trip of the year offered an chance to explore the world of fungus.  We've had a fair amount of rain here in SW PA, so the dark, shady paths at the park were filled with fungus, mushrooms, and lots of colors and shapes.  We are not experts in fungus, so needless to say, no one touched or consumed any of the items we found.  However, we did find a great field guide published by the USDA that we used to try to identify our film finds.

http://www.fs.fed.us/nrs/pubs/gtr/gtr_nrs79.pdf

The kids had a great time scouting for the 'shrooms, plus they had an opportunity to run off some of the extra energy that sitting in the classroom can create.  We discussed "leaving only footprints" as we traveled through the forest, as well as the importance of respecting nature and recycling.  The U7 crew were big fans of this field trip!

New Beginnings...

Welcome to the 2014-2015 school year at Holy Archangels Academy.  We are an eclectic homeschool that embraces many aspects of the Charlotte Mason and classical education models. We are faithful Catholics who like to work hard, pray hard, and play hard!  We are located outside of Pittsburgh, PA and have been homeschooling since 2010.  HAA is starting a new year and a new blog to chronicle all of our achievements and adventures.  Feel free to follow along on our learning path!

This year we are opening up our school experience to embrace a middle school.  ADJ is officially a sixth grader this year, with a full course load filled with algorithms and analogies, oh my!  He's tackling pre-Algebra, Earth Science, American History, Latin, Spanish, and a strong dose of literature.  He's lined up The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy for fun reading, and we will be concentrating on short stories and nonfiction in his literature studies.  He continues to play football for the sixth year and is on the varsity squad, as well as youth group, altar serving, Bible study, and a host of other activities.

K is ready to go as a K/1 kid this year!  She officially begins her schooling adventures with Math 1, World Cultures, Spanish, The Earth Around Us, and lots and lots of reading.  She is already well on her way to being a great reader after her preK-K work and is thrilled to be "official" this year.  K will be running track in the spring and beginning CCD and Faith Formation this fall.  She is also joining the Youth Praise Choir and can't wait to show her stuff.

We also have two new, temporary additions to our school this fall.  Our southern cousins, A and J are joining our school for part of the fall term.  A is a budding second grader who loves Pete the Cat books and art projects, and J is a kindergarten who can't wait to get his hands on legos and trains.  We will have lots of opportunities to co-op with the kids, who are also going to try their hand at Spanish and piano while they are in SW PA.

Welcome to Holy Archangels Academy!